Detroit Lions Weblog

“China Doll” Returns, Fincher Cut, More on Kitna’s Bootlegging/QB Situation, “Hawaii-2.0″

The Lions cut veteran LB Alfred Fincher and signed the briefly ex-Lion, Teddy “China Doll” Lehman to help bolster their linebacking corps. Lehman, who was highly regarded upon his selection in the draft, still possesses some upside, but has been severely limited by a litany of injuries, and, at least earlier in his career, a lack of the upper body strength necessary to function as a middle linebacker in the NFL.

It is believed that Lehman will provide depth at the strongside linebacker position, but with the Lions linebacking situation being far from settled, beyond Ernie Sims being their starting weakside linebacker, who the hell knows!

A major concern, in my eyes, with more plays designed to roll Jon Kitna out of the pocket is that he may be subject to even more knock-out blow hits with the increased vulnerability that comes from moving out into open space. Given Kitna’s age, and the relative lack of QB experience behind Kitna on the Lions depth chart, one has to wonder how prudent this added wrinkle really is for the Lions offense.

The addition of another veteran QB would help assuage my concerns, slightly. I don’t regard Daunte Culpepper or Byron Leftwich as franchise saviors, but they have been put through the rigorous NFL meat grinder and have, at least temporarily, experienced some meager success. Dan Orlovsky and Drew Stanton, as much as I am pulling for them to develop into NFL-caliber QB’s, are too green to be relied upon, in my opinion.

Apparently, Ikaika Alama-Francis has become Kalimba “The Ghost” Edwards, version 2.0, and strayed from his “Hawaii Five-0″ moniker right into Rod Marinelli’s doghouse and will now be referred to as “Hawaii-2.0″ until his on-field performance improves.
Alama-Francis possesses the same tantalizing level of athleticism and promise as Edwards once did, but “2.0″ is an even rawer version, of a very raw player in Edwards. I am glad to read that Marinelli is attacking this situation head on, he may stand a better chance of reversing “2.0″ ’s career path, than he ever stood with the enigmatic Edwards.